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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780061474095 ISBN: 0061474096 Label: William Morrow Manufacturer: William Morrow Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 960 Publication Date: September 01, 2008 Publisher: William Morrow Release Date: September 09, 2008 Sales Rank: 332 Studio: William Morrow
Anathem, the latest invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable—yet strangely inverted—world.
Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside—the Extramuros—for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.
Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates—at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.
Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros—a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose—as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world—as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - what a windbag
Yes, the author does deliver a nuanced world but where in the heck is an editor? Great spurts of adventure and derring-do sparsely planted in long winded philosophical passages. How's about a little brevity. Stick withe the adventure and ease up on the hair-splitting. Not for the faint of heart nor those in a hurry.
Rating: - Sadly disappointing
I'm with most of the others here giving 1-star, and I'm also a huge fan of Stephenson. But, while I appreciate his effort at something different, Anathem is TOO different for me.
In short, I truly felt like I was reading a 12-year-old's first attempt at writing fiction. Stephenson is a MUCH better writer than this, so I can't help but wonder "what's happened?" His writing in this novel feels very adolescent (borderline childish), and I found myself unwilling to read beyond the first several pages. You might insist to me that the "meat" is found futher on, but I'll pass, thanks.
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Rating: - This book is wonderful
Since this is my first review and I don't want to spoil the book for anyone, this review will be short. Although difficult to read at first (you find yourself yelling at inanimate objects, husbands and cats), I found it to be one of the, if not the best, item I have read this year. And at the end, you still don't know why it was so enjoyable, but it was.
Rating: - ANATHEM will assuredly find a following
ANATHEM, Neal Stephenson's new novel, centers on a young man named Fraa Erasmas, a monk, of sorts, residing within the walls of the Concent of Saunt Edhar. There, he and his fellow residents/students devote their lives to the understanding of math, science, cosmology, metaphysics and more. Everything must have reason and be provable, or it is invalid. In such a place, the residents are segregated, to a degree, and in some instances none can know what the others know.
Fraa Orolo, Erasmas's mentor, finds himself "Thrown Back," or cast out of the concent for a violation. Erasmas, Lio, Ala, ... Read More
Rating: - Sci-Fi equivalent of Eco's Name of the Rose
An excellent treatment of several different themes - philosophy of knowledge, role of science versus technology, nature of faith, cloistered living, and good old Science Fiction.
Some mentioned a slow start, but I found it fascinating from page one. Stephenson has done a masterful job weaving big themes into a coherent and engaging story.
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